Following the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, international bankers pushed rates to zero and sat on them for several years opening the door for commercial banks to lend money to corporate clients that cost them nothing.

In 2017 they began ratcheting rates up. Like a financial social climber at a debutante’s ball, interest rates edged up throughout the remainder of 2017, and 2018. In December 2018, the Chairman of the Fed said two additional increases were scheduled for 2019.

It looked like a stairway to the stars.

Then a month later, Chairman Powell started a strange back pedal. On January 4^th, he said that there might not be two rate increases in 2019 – he’d wait and see.

Then in March, he said there would be no more rate increases for the rest of the year. Then he fully reversed course. On July 30th, he cut rates ¼% and did it again on September 17^th.

A stunning turnaround.

Many think that it was Trump’s constant criticism of Powell that got the Fed boss to ratchet the rates down. The Donald, in one of his classic misguided attacks of his own appointees, publicly stated that Powell was blessed with a “horrendous lack of vision”. https://tinyurl.com/y2c4rycb

But there are other reasons for the Fed’s bipolar actions, not the least of which was the fact that the owners of the Fed, Jerome Powell’s real bosses, are the New York-based, money-center banks – they own the Fed and have reason for rates to remain low. 

This is a subject for another article, but we introduce the data here to show how challenging it would be if you were in the mortgage business where the cost of your inventory was in a constant state of flux.

As it is and has been for Sun Pacific Mortgage.

Sun Pacific Mortgage is a family-owned mortgage company based in the beautiful rolling hills of Santa Rosa, California.

We, On Target Research, did some work for Sun Pacific a few years ago with which they were quite happy. They got back in touch with us a few months ago for an update on the research and marketing advice.

We conducted new surveys of their clients and prospects. Interestingly, the main button had changed. I read the survey results 3 times. Yep. The main button had changed.

This can happen when circumstances change in a market or in the environment. 

We made recommendations based on the new survey results and worked with them on their positioning and marketing. 

The results?

“My name is Ari Walker and I’m the Marketing Director for a company called Sun Pacific Mortgage & Real Estate. We are a family owned and operated, credit money financing company for California and I want to say that Bruce Wiseman and On Target Research have done phenomenal work for us.  We’ve worked with them for 4 or 5 years, originally just to do surveys, buttons.  Then we picked it up another year and a half later and did another survey with him, and he has just really helped to fine tune our buttons, and our marketing and the promotion of our product.  

As a result, we’ve rocketed on the production.  We rocketed on our income.  And we’re definitely helping so many more people get into homes with private money financing.  And I know, for sure, that without Bruce Wiseman’s skills and direction we would not be doing what we’re doing today.  So, thank you!  And I highly, highly recommend him and his services for survey technology.  It definitely makes a big difference in helping your company expand.

Besides the super-kind testimonial, Ari sent me graphs of the company’s production and income. All graphs are in screaming affluence (virtually straight up) with the income hitting highest ever and shooting off the graph requiring a new page. I am not attaching them as I am presuming the numbers are confidential to the company; but trust me, implementing the new buttons and positioning and the company’s new aggressive marketing campaign is driving their stats to the moon.

From Ari…

“Attached are 3 main graphs from last month:  Loan Reaches In, Loans Logged, Gross Income.  (The Loan Reaches In are in a whole new range for past 2 months. The Loans Logged went straight up and the income graph was so high it went off the graph so Lynn had to make another graph!)”

Buttons are used to attract and interest the public in your message. But not just any buttons.  Only by using properly surveyed buttons will you know that your advertising and marketing funds are most efficiently spent with the best possible results.

Are you using buttons in your marketing? If so, are your buttons attracting business?

We have been conducting surveys to find the right buttons for our clients for 30 years. We know this world.

If you need some help with your marketing, give us a call.

Best,

Bruce

Bruce Wiseman
President & CEO
On Target Research
ontargetresearch.com